


#6: Killing The Coward

by JunkMail



Series: A Better Victory [4]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Acts of Violence and Torture, Alternate Universe, Future AU, Gen, Past Bumblebee (Mentioned), Past White Rose (Mentioned), Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-03
Updated: 2018-11-03
Packaged: 2019-08-17 06:56:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16511462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JunkMail/pseuds/JunkMail
Summary: ‘Opening the double doors to his office, the last thing Leonardo Lionheart expected to find was a woman dressed in a red cloak already sitting at his desk. Or for another woman, this time a blonde dressed in brown combat leathers and gold armour plate, to have been waiting off to the side to shut and lock the doors behind him.’Two Huntresses pay a visit to the Headmaster of Haven Academy, and after they are done with him, they don't plan to leave with him still breathing.





	#6: Killing The Coward

**_“You can call it whatever you want, it doesn't really matter. We're here... helping her. I've crossed a line... I've done things that Ozpin will never forgive, and he shouldn't! I don't know where I go from here.”_ ** **– Leonardo Lionheart**

* * *

 

Crossing the courtyard on the way to his office, Leonardo Lionheart took great pains to keep his face a blank mask of stern authority. The few of his students who were up this early in the morning, mostly consisting of third-years getting in their morning exercise, giving him a respectful nod or a polite greeting as they passed him.

Little did they realise the worry and panic occupying their Headmaster’s mind, and Leonardo was forced more than once to apologise for bumping into a student or fellow teacher.

The failure and death of Watts’s colleagues in their attempt to kill Summer Rose had, by proxy, left himself on shaky ground. With the appearance of a new silver eyed warrior, one Ozpin hadn’t apparently deemed him worthy of notifying, making Salem’s displeasure with him even more severe.

Even worse, the implication that Ozpin had sent reinforcements without telling him implied the old wizard no longer trusted him, and the likelihood that his own treachery had been somehow discovered.

Of course, he couldn’t do or say anything openly. Since that would only confirm whatever suspicions the Beacon Headmaster had, and would only serve to make him worthless to Salem as well.  

Entering the administrative building and taking the elevator, Leonardo wasn’t surprised when the doors opened to an empty hallway. It would be another hour or so before his secretary would arrive, and another hour after that before classes would begin to start.

Opening the double doors to his office, the last thing he expected to find was a woman dressed in a red cloak already sitting at his desk. Or for another woman, this time a blonde dressed in brown combat leathers and gold armour plate, to have been waiting off to the side to shut and lock the doors behind him.

Spinning to face the blonde in armour, Leonardo’s mind raced as he tried to understand what was happening, his faunus instincts screaming at him that he was in imminent danger.

“Who are you two?” He demanded, drawing himself up to his full height and summoning his most commanding voice. “And how did you get in here?”

Unfortunately, the blonde only grinned at him, the smile on her face somehow managing to seem even more deadly than look in her lilac eyes.

“Sorry Lionheart,” The blonde stated, stepping forwards and forcing Leonardo to take a step back towards. “Nobody is coming to save your pathetic ass.”

It was only after the blonde had forced him towards his desk that red cloaked woman stood up from where she had been sitting in his chair, the red fabric rolling over her shoulders to hide her body from sight as she moved to stand adjacent from his desk.

“Sit.” She ordered, pointing at his chair.

Looking between the two women, Leonardo narrowed his eyes.

“If you think I am going to be ordered around in my own-”

There was a flash of white light, and the air in the office _reverberated_ with the promise of power. The nearby windows rattling as Lionheart took a stumbling step backwards, his eyes growing wide as the cloaked woman looked up, allowing him to stare her in the eyes.

Silver Eyes, overflowing with barely restrained power, glared at him with the promise of retribution should he disobey.

“I said… **Sit**.”

Frozen in place, the headmaster of Haven Academy found himself staring, wide eyed, as silvery-white light continued to leak from the woman’s eyes.

“You have… silver eyes.” He said numbly, realisation dawning on his face. “You’re the ones Ozpin spoke of. The ones who saved Summer and Qrow!”

The silver eyed woman’s face twisted into a sneer, “Very observant of you. Now **sit down** , before my sister here breaks your legs and _makes_ you.”

Looking between the two women, Lionheart slowly moved around his desk and sat down in his chair. His hand moving subtly to unlatch the drawer holding _Ossimoro_ as he did so.

“I don’t know what you want,” The Headmaster stated cautiously, “But I would be happy to assist you however I can.”

Turning away, the cloaked woman walked over to the windows, the silver light surrounding her slowly dissipating as she did so.

“Oh I’m sure you can, Lionheart.” She informed him. “We’re here for something in particular.”

“Oh?” He asked.

“Yep.” The blonde answered, looking far too pleased for the Faunus’s liking. “We’re here to kill your traitorous ass.”

“W-what?” He spluttered, “Kill me!?”

Leonardo jumped out of his chair at the information, his hand automatically reaching for where he stored his Dust-Shield in his desk.

“I don’t know what kind of sick games Ozpin is playing but I won’t be-argh!”

In a blur of movement, the blonde had stepped forward and shoved him back into his chair hard enough that his Aura flared slightly to protect his chest, before the blonde brought a gauntleted fist down on his left knee.

Leonardo was no stranger to pain, but he still cried out as the blonde’s fist struck his knee cap, and while his Aura tried its best to absorb the blow, the pain was still excruciating.

“I did warned you.” The cloaked woman sighed.

“And we aren’t here on the old wizard’s orders.” The blonde added, taking a step back from him. “So whatever authority you think you have means fuck-all to us.”

Gritting through the pain, Leonardo concentrated, calling upon his semblance as he yanked open his desk drawer and pulled _Ossimoro_ onto his arm.

The blonde reacted instantly, blurring forwards to strike at him, but this time Leonardo was ready, and as the blonde’s fist shot out towards him, he raised _Ossimoro_ in defence. The blonde’s gauntleted fist striking his dust-shield and resulting in a loud **_clang_**.

Semblance now in full swing, Leonardo felt the sleeves of his shirt rip as his muscle mass began to bulk up, and he let out a primal roar as he swung a fist of his own, striking the blonde across the face and sending her reeling.

Turning to face the cloaked silver eyed woman, who was still standing by the windows, Leonardo brought _Ossimoro_ up to fire off a firebolt, only to blink in surprise as a gold gauntleted fist came down from above, hitting _Ossimoro_ and causing him to fire at his feet instead.

Stumbling back from the explosion, Leonardo had enough time to look up and see the blonde, hair quite literally on fire and eyes a furious shade of red, before she moved, and his world became pain.

* * *

 

Staring down at the unconscious Headmaster, Yang snorted in distain, “Pathetic.”

Off to the side Ruby seemed to agree with her, pulling back her hood to reveal her long brown/red hair as she moved to stand next to her. “How in Oum’s name did _he_ become Headmaster?” Yang wondered aloud, “He’s not even that tough, even with his semblance.”

Ruby shrugged one shoulder, watching as Lionheart began to drool a combination of spit and blood onto the carpet. “Perhaps his supposed loyalty to Ozpin is why he was made Headmaster.”

“Dunno,” She said, reaching down to haul the headmaster up by one shoulder and drag him over to his chair, unceremoniously dropping him into it and giving him a hard slap across the face to bring him round. “Maybe.”

“Hey!” She called, “Wake up.”

Surprising her once again, the lion faunus did as requested and came back to consciousness with a groan of pain.

“What?” Lionheart muttered, his aura visibly beginning to heal the wounds Yang had inflicted upon him during their short fight. “Where… I-”

Yang wasn’t having any of it. “Shut it!” She threatened with a gauntleted fist, making it abundantly clear what would happen if he interrupted again. “And listen to what my sister has to say.”

Beside her, Ruby continued on as if nothing had happened. “We know you’ve betrayed Ozpin, we know you’re taking orders from Salem, and that _you_ were the one to set up Summer Rose to die.”

Lying crumpled in his chair, Lionheart paled, “I-I don’t know what you-”

Yang didn’t bother waiting for Ruby to signal her, stepping forwards in order to slug the traitor in the gut, his aura taking the blow, but the force of the hit still managed to make him wheeze as he doubled over, only barely managing to stay in his chair.

“Don’t lie to us, Lionheart.” Ruby warned him, “We’re still being nice here.”

Gasping for breath, the traitorous bastard seemed to be struggling to come up with an answer. The fallen headmaster glancing more than once to the spot where Yang had left his dust-shield in pieces on the floor.

“I don’t… know what you’re talking… about.”

Ruby tutted in annoyance, before stepping aside to let Yang forward, and this time she didn’t bother to be gentle. Another solid slug to the stomach to remove his feeble resistance, and then she used the back of her armoured hand to catch him across the jaw, the blow leaving him sprawled out on the floor as he groaned in pain.

Off to the side, Ruby waited until Yang nodded at her to approach.

“Make no mistake, Lionheart.” She stated, moving in such a way that her cloak would appear in his vision as she used a steel-toe capped boot to push him onto his back. “We _are_ going to kill you. But first, you are going to do something for us.”

“Why… why should I bother?” The traitor asked, sounding bitter as he rested his head on the floor. Yang could tell that his Aura was working overtime to heal his injuries, no doubt the process was causing him the mother of all headaches as well. “If you’re here to kill me. What could I possibly gain from helping you?”

If anything, the sneer on her sister’s face grew worse.

“Why?” Ruby asked rhetorically, “Because if you answer my questions truthfully, I’ll grant you a quick and merciful death. However, if you force us to _rip_ the answers out of you…”

Taking this as her que, Yang moved into the disgraced headmaster’s line of sight, behind and to her sister’s right. And as Ruby trailed off, Yang brought her gauntleted fist up. The golden armour was still stained with some of his blood, and as the lion faunus watched her wearily, a two-inch long golden blade shot out from the wrist-mount.

The horrified look on the traitor’s face was all Yang needed to see to know he had broken, and his next few words confirmed it.

“What… do you want to know?”

Ruby’s response was immediate. Reaching down, Yang watched as her sister hauled him to his feet as easily as Yang had earlier, and ignoring his pain-filled cries about his injured knee, she shoved him back into his now bloodstained chair.

“Cinder Fall.” Ruby stated a few moments later, “Do you know her or her current location?”

“N-no?” Lionheart stuttered, his eyes blinking rapidly as he appeared to run the name through his memory. “Never.”

Yang narrowed her eyes and took a threatening step forwards.

“I don’t!” He pleaded, flinching away from her. “I’m telling the truth! I don’t know anyone by that name!”

“Then how about a description?” Ruby asked, “Pale skin, black hair and amber eyes. Likes to use her sex appeal to her advantage. She has a Dust Manipulation semblance.”

This time Lionheart was more confident in his answer.

“No… no. Never anyone with a semblance like that.”

Seeming to accept that, Ruby nodded and moved on to her next question.

“How about a Doctor Arthur Watts?”

Lionheart blinked, “Who?”

Rolling her eyes in annoyance, Yang stepped forwards and used one arm to pin him against the back of his chair. The gold-plated blade attached to her other arm coming to eye level, before the tip of the blade was brought dangerously close to his left eye.

“You’ve got a shit poker face.” Yang informed him, “You want me to change that?”

Unable to take his eyes off of blade held inches in front of his face, Lionheart caved. “Okay, okay! Please, wait! Watts approached me about two months ago, threatened to kill my wife if I didn’t do as he wanted.”

Yang blinked in surprise, before lowering her gauntlet’s blade slightly.

Behind her, Yang heard Ruby step closer as well.

“Your wife?” Her sister asked, “She’s still alive?”

Lionheart seemed to deflate, any remaining fight in him seeming to drain out of him at the question.

“Yes,” He said, “For the moment at least. He’s implanted some kind of…” Lionheart practically spat the words, “ _of Grimm Parasite_ , into her. If I don’t do as he says, the parasite kills her.”

There was a beat of awkward silence, the Yang turning to exchange a look with her sister as they process this. Yang letting him go a few moments later, before Ruby cleared her throat and continued with the questioning.

“Where’s Watts now?”

“Here.” The Headmaster revealed, sounding entirely done with it all. “In Haven. I don’t know where exactly. But he’s been communicating with me using a local scroll number.”

Ruby raised an eyebrow, “What’s the number?”

He told them, and Ruby used her own scroll to note it down, before putting it away and returning her gaze to him.

“Your fate is sealed.” Ruby told him, and Yang winced at the tone that had entered her sister’s voice. “What you’ve done won’t be forgiven, but we’ll deal with Watts and do what we can to save your wife.”

Something in her sister’s words seemed to light a fire in the lion Faunus.

“You think I wanted this?” He asked, exploding out of his chair. Yang let out a surprised yelp as she was shoved aside. “Any of this? To end up a pawn in **her** game? I never had any choice in the matter!”

The headmaster practically spat the words, “They’re holding my dear Anne hostage! _Blackmailing me with the things I’m doing to keep her alive!_ ”

Charging forwards, Lionheart reached out and grabbed Ruby by the collar of her cloak, screaming in her face.

“ ** _I never wanted this!_** ”

Cold silver eyes stared back, unflinching, as Yang recovered her balance and reached out, clamping a hand down on Lionheart’s shoulder. Her cybernetic one grabbing the back of the Headmaster’s neck and wrenching him away from Ruby with a roar of rage, before twisting him around and slamming him down on his own desk.

As the disgraced headmaster fruitlessly tried to break free of her hold, Yang practically growled from where she had him pinned down behind him. “Unless you want to go another round with me, I’d shut the hell up if I was you.”

Silently moving around the two of them to stand on the other side of the desk, Ruby looked down at Lionheart with utter distain in her eyes.

“You’ve had your chances.” She informed him, “You could have told Ozpin, in spite of the threats to your wife, or whatever blackmail they had.” Reaching out, Ruby grabbed him by his hair and lifted his head up, ignoring his cries of protest. “Instead, you bended to the whims of humanity’s greatest enemy! _Betrayed everything you have ever stood for, everyone who looks to you for safety. For hope!”_

Letting go of him with a look of disgust, Ruby instead reached over and slid a piece of blank paper in front of him. The blonde letting go of him in order to throw him back in his chair moments later.

“Names.” She ordered. “I want the names of every contact Salem’s used to communicate with you, and any others you may know of that serve her will.”

“Safety? Hope?” Leonardo asked, ignoring her demands as a look of incredulousness came over his face. “They have my _wife_! The woman I love more than life itself!”

Rage entered his features once more, he continued to shout. “I don’t expect you to understand,” He spat, “But there is nothing I wouldn’t do to protect her, no price I won’t pay.”

Glaring back at him with her own fury, Ruby’s silver eyes narrowed even further, to the point it looked like she was squinting at him, before she reached up to pull something loose from inside the neckline of her cloak.

Yang grimaced when she realised what her sister had revealed.

A simple silver neckless dangled from her clenched fist, with two gold engagement rings held on the end.

“I understand.” Ruby stated, her voice completely devoid of emotion. “But you are still going to do as I asked.”

Lionheart’s eyes seemed to fixate on the two simple rings, before the disgraced Headmaster sighed in defeat. Looking down at the blank piece of paper the brunette had placed at the center of his desk, the lion faunus grimaced. “I don’t know all that many.”

Yang grabbed a nearby pencil and slammed it down next to him, giving him a look that stated she didn’t care in the slightest.

“Less excuses, more writing.” She ordered.

Again, looking down at the piece of paper, the disgraced Headmaster sighed. “Alright.” He said, taking the pencil and beginning to write.

A small list of names and descriptions slowly forming as Lionheart wrote down everyone he could think of, before eventually leaning back with a small sigh of relief.

“There,” He stated, pushing the piece of paper towards the brunette. “Everyone I know or suspect.”

Taking the piece of paper with a small nod, Ruby slipped it into the folds of her cloak.

“Good,” She stated, “And the Seer Grimm. Where is it?”

Lionheart blinked at them, “Seer Grimm?”

“The Seer Grimm that you used to communicate with Salem!” Yang thundered, well aware that their available time before the Headmaster’s secretary arrived was closing rather rapidly. “Where are you hiding it?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about! Really!”

Yang’s response was instantaneous, one of her gauntleted hands clamping around his throat and hauling him out of his chair. His instinctual attempts to pry her fingers away from his windpipe were as ignored as they were ineffectual.

“I really don’t know! All communication goes through Watts, I’ve never spoken to her directly!”

Behind them, Ruby’s penetrating stare bored into both of them, Yang quite literally able to feel her sister’s presence as she walked up to stand beside her.

“…I believe you.” Ruby said, finally. “Put him down, Yang.”

The moment his feet touched the ground, Yang removed her hand from his neck, and the lion faunus sighed as he brought a hand up to rub at his bruised neck.

“Thank you, now what’s ne-”

**_Bang!_ **

The single gunshot cut him off mid-sentence.

With a surprised look now permanently adorning his face, Leonardo Lionheart took single step forwards, before falling face-first onto his desk with a satisfying thump. The large smoking hole in the middle of his forehead letting out a small trickle of blood, staining some scattered grading papers.

For a few moments, there was complete silence in the office, before with a small sigh, Yang stepped around the desk. Choosing to ignore the newly created corpse in order to confront her sister.

“I could have done that.” She said, frowning.

But Ruby shook her head, holstering her oversized pistol with a practiced spin.

“I promised him a quick end, you know I keep my word.”

Yang’s frown deepened, “That’s not my point. You have enough blood on your hands.”

Ruby snorted, “And you don’t?”

“That’s not it either.” Yang growled. “I’m your big sister. You shouldn’t have had to have… done that.” Even as she waved her hand at the still warm corpse of the late Headmaster, Yang could feel the anger begin to drain out of her, replaced with a morose sense of regret. “I could’ve done it.”

Shoulders slumping slightly, Yang sighed. “It’s my job to protect you.”

“It’s our job to protect everyone.” Ruby countered, “We both know what that means.”

“Yeah. But with Summer-”

“Mom is _dead_.” Ruby cut in, raising a finger to point at her. “Our Mom died, because people like _this_ coward,” She pointed at the still-dead headmaster, her voice raising in volume as she did so. “Were allowed to live. I’m not allowing it to happen this time around.”

Raising her arms wide, Yang matched her sister’s tone. “At what cost, Ruby? At what cost?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Ruby stated, a dead tone entering her voice. “Ruby Rose will grow up with her mother alive and with Salem _destroyed_. I’m irrelevant.”

Tears began to form at the edges of Yang’s eyes, and she stepped forwards to pull her sister into a bone-crushing hug.

“Not to me.” Yang choked, “Not to everyone we left behind.”

Standing there together for an indiscernible amount of time, the sisters eventually broke apart with the sound of muffled voices beyond the office’s large double doors.

Sighing, Ruby walked over to the body of the deceased Headmaster and reached into the folds of his jacket, rummaging around slightly before retrieving a gold pocket watch hidden within.

“Probably best if we hold on to this.” She said, turning the antique over in her palm.

Recognising both the wish and the need to move on, Yang nodded in agreement.

“Yeah. Probably a good idea.”

Watching as her sister pocketed the watch, Yang crossed her arms and decided to address the _other_ Nevermore in the room.

“You know that they’re not going to like this, right?”

Ruby let out an aggravated sigh, “Lionheart was a traitor and a murderer, so I don’t really care what anyone thinks.” She paused at the sound of someone hesitantly knocking on the large double doors, the two sisters sharing a brief look, before they began moving over to the nearby windows. “Besides, the bastard deserved it.”

“Oh, no disagreements here.” Yang stated with a surprising amount of viciousness, breaking the lock holding one of the windows closed and swinging it wide open. “You know I’ve always got your back, Rubes. I was just wondering what you were going to tell them.”

Joining her sister at the window, the hesitant knocking had begun to turn into something more urgent, a woman’s voice calling out the Headmaster’s name, and Ruby gave out a slight huff of annoyance.

“Simple.” She stated, resting a hand on Yang’s shoulder. “I shot a high-level traitor, and Ozpin needs to better vet the people he leaves in charge of protecting the relics.”

In a burst of aura, the two sisters transformed into a mass of red and yellow rose petals, just as the doors behind them burst open, and they disappeared out the open window. The two sisters shooting across the open courtyard as a multi-coloured blur of red and yellow, several students looking up in surprise as they rocketed past, only to rematerialize at the Academy’s main entrance gates.

Steadying herself, Yang blocked out the queasy feeling in her stomach with a practiced ease of long experience.

“Fair enough.” She stated after a few moments of breathing, “Though I doubt they’re going to see it that way.”

Ruby was interrupted from replying when the entire school erupted in alarms, several nearby students turning to look in their direction as a female voice on a nearby intercom began calling the students to arms.

“Come on,” Ruby sighed. “Let’s go and save Annabelle Lionheart. We can always hunt down Watts later.”

Yang smiled, turning with her to begin running down the nearby steps.

“Right behind you, sis.”

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, this one was originally meant to come out months ago, but I didn't like the original edit, so i changed some things around. Also, the lack of motivations for Lionheart was always something I found irritating in the Show, so I took the opportunity of fixing it here. 
> 
> I don't quite know when the second part of Childhood Wish will come out, since I'm kinda rethinking it all... so it'll happen whenever my muse allows it.
> 
> Let me know what you guys think, or just screech at me again in the comments and leave. Either way!


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